How to Glue Bulldog Ears

There was a discussion started a while back on our Bulldog Q&A regarding gluing Bulldog’s ears. Some wanted to know how to do it and others thought it was basically a shameful act and harmful to the puppy. At the time I had limited experience with this practice as our Bulldogs have typically always had that perfect rose bud look.

To be truthful I was sort of against it. Thanks to one of our adopting families, we’ve recently learned more about the process which is really quite simple and nothing to worry about.

Shelby before(top) and after(bottom) gluing.

Shelby: Before and After Ear Transformation

So here’s one of our bullies someone got from us this past fall and her ears weren’t setting right at 10 weeks. We suggested to the new family that the ears would probably set correctly into the rose bud position after a while, but they decided to go ahead and glue the ears.

Here’s what she said:

“I chatted to the head of NorCal bulldog rescue who also happens to be a long time AKC show breeder to get a non-biased viewpoint about whether we should or shouldn’t glue her ears and if it’s humane or not. I knew she would be jaded from all the crap she sees some breeders doing to the breed from being in rescue so would be completely honest about whether it’s worth it or if we are just being picky.

She said she has done it a few times and it’s not painful or inhumane, if anything she feels it opens up the ear to allow more airflow which is good for a bully. So we took Shelby to our breeder that we got my female from, as he said he would glue the ears for us.

It was actually pretty easy, he showed us how to do it, it took about 3 minutes. It’s been 4 days now and the glue is starting to wear off, and her ears are now actually holding in the proper bully shape! Wanted to give you that feedback just in case anyone else ever asks in future.”

It was a hard decision for us to make but we feel it was a good one. Will keep you updated on her She is an angel!”

So what do you all think? To glue or not to glue. I still believe Shelby’s ears would have grown into the correct rose bud shape given a bit more time. Her mother, Indy, had ears in the less desired “buttton” shape too that didn’t correct until she was 6 months old. That was my main reasoning behind telling shelby’s owners to wait. However, it’s believed that if the ears cannot be glued after the 12-16 week mark. I don’t think Shelby’s owners did anything wrong by choosing to go ahead and glue the ears. They just didn’t want to chance it.

I wish we had thought to get a video of Shelby having her ears done, but we didn’t so I did the next best thing and posted this video below.